Big, big weekend of boxing. On Friday we got great fights and on Saturday great fight’s from morning to evening. Lots of fun this weekend.
Getting it started is the Friday Night Fights main event, Joel Julio vs Anges Adjaho. Julio was a once hot prospect, he suffered his first loss back in 2006 at 147 when Carlos Quintana dominated him in a 12 rounds UD. Joel then fought one more time at 147, barely beating Cosme Rivera, then he moved up and has since fought at 154, where he had minimal success. He proceeded to beat K9 Bundrage and Ishe Smith, but was unable to win against the top shel fighters of Sergiy Dzinziruk, James Kirkland and Alfrado Angulo. Now, he’s back down to 147 fighting Anges Adjaho. Adjaho like Julio hasn’t been able to get over that hump as well. He suffered his first loss back in 2007 at 130 to Miguel Acosta, moved up to 135 lost to Antonio DeMarco, where he was stopped in a close fight. Moved up to 147 and has lost to Mark Jason Melligen, Brad Solomon, and Shawn Porter. He is looking to finally snap that 4 fight losing streak, but again fighting a notable fighter I don’t think that will happen. I’ve got Julio winning comfortably in the 7-3, 8-2 range of this 10 round bout.
Then we got the early morning saturday fight…or erm, early morning for me at least. Anyway, this fight for Roy Jones Jr. spells trouble. I’ve been trying to figure out a way RJJ can win, but I just don’t see it. RJJ has shot legs, no confidence, and a chin that is very fragile….especially to someone like Denis Lebedev. A top 3 Cruiserweight, who is a young lion, and has deadly power. I can’t see how RJJ wins this fight. I’ve got Lebedev winning by early KO….heck, who doesn’t? 
Let’s jump ahead a bit and talk about the return of Chad Dawson, he is fighting Adrian Diaconu, who quite frankly, has really fallen off since losing to Jean Pascal. He looked really bad in his last fight against Omar Shieka and doesn’t have the same luster he once had just a couple of years ago. A couple of years ago this would have been a great fight, now it’s an ok fight. A solid fight, but nothing big like it would have been if these two would have met earlier. Anyway, I’ve got Dawson big in this fight. I believe that Dawson will look to impress and I’ve got him winning almost every round, due to the fact that Dawson is still a very good fighter, and Diaconu seems to be slipping a bit. If this is a 10 round fight I say Dawson by shutout or 9-1…with fair judging, but if it is a 12 round fight Dawson may even get the stoppage, but I’ll stick with wide UD in the 10-2 range…with fair judging.
Sammy Gutierrez-Juan Palacios is a 50/50 fight and on paper a really FUN fight. I really can’t wait for this one. Gutierrez and Palacios both bring the power, and they got nice skills. Sammy Gutierrez is an old 25 year old fighter. He’s been in a lot of wars already and he’s got a lot of tread. As usual, he turned pro at 18 got an early loss and early draw in his career. He has since avenged that early loss to Oscar Martinez. He also has gone 36 with Raul Garcia losding 2 of the fights by MD and SD, and has fought to a draw against Garcia. He then got stopped in 7 in South Africa to Nkosinathi Joyi, and lost a 10 round decision to Omar Nino Romero. So, he basically hasn’t been able to beat the elites in his division so far in his career. Is Juan Palacios an elite fighter? You can definitely make a case. He also lost very very early in his career, in his 5th fight he was scheduled for 12 rounds and got stopped in 9. He has since beaten everybody else except for two fights, both on the road. A SD loss to Jose Antonio Aguirre, and a MD loss to Oleydong Sithsamerchai in Japan. Two fights where anywhere else he may have gotten the nod. So, essentially, he pretty much is an undefeated fighter. This fight is in Mexico, the home country for Sammy Gutierrez, but fighting on the road is nothing new for Palacios either, other than the already mentioned Oleydong and Aguirre fights he has fought Omar Soto: Puerto Rico, Erik Ramirez: Mexico, and Teruo Misawa: China. So, this will be nothing new for him, so how do I see this fight? Well, as I said it’s a 50/50 fight where you can flip a coin. Both are very skillful and both have dynamite. I think, Gutierrez might have enough in the tank to win a real close fight. A really war where both fighters will be going toe to toe and will probably drop each other at least once. I’ve got Gutierrez winning by a close SD.
On the otherside of the pond over in Europe we got a great domestic fight between two fighters that really hate each other. Two young, talented, undefeated prospects going at it. On paper that sounds great and it is…but I just don’t think this fight will live up to the hype and be a competitive fight. Before I get into that let’s take a look at both fighters. Starting off with George Groves, he is talented, good speed, good head movement, ok power, and a big heart from the looks of things. Groves only has 12 fights, but he has a great resume for somebody with such limited experience. Last year he fought all kinds of solid fighters such as Charles Adamu, Alfrado Contreras, and Kenny Anderson. He had success against all of them except Kenny Anderson. That fight showed his weaknesses. He trys to be slik with his left hand low and have lots of head movement. Which is nice if you know what to do with your hands. Groves I don’t think really knows why he has his left hand low. Fighters that have their hands low usually have an idead of what they want to do. For example, Carl Froch keeps that left hand low, but keeps a good distance, when you comes close enough boom, here comes a stiff left jab and Froch procedes to take a step back or to the side. Groves doesn’t do that. He has his left hand low and when somebody comes in on him he goes straight back and moves his head. This is a flaw, he has leaky D and he goes straight back into the ropes. That is a big no-no.
Good fighter, but a lot of flaws that need to be worked out and I think for him this fight is way too soon, because he is too green. As opposed to his rival, James DeGale. DeGale is very very good fighter as well, and a great resume for somebody with only 10 fights. Last year he fought Sam Horton, Carl Dilks, and Paul Smith. All he showed, especially against Paul Smith, is that he is a very talented fighter with all the tools to go a long way. Good offense, good D. All around good fighter. We have yet to really see him get tested, but that just shows how talented a fighter he is. We will see if Groves can really push DeGale, but I don’t think he will. DeGale reminds me a bit of like Dirrell and Ward. Dirrell with his speed, and Ward by just the way his style is….minus the clinching and headbutting. 
Anyhow, as I’ve said I think DeGale beats up Groves by wide UD…may’be even gets a late KO in the championship rounds. I think Groves may have some success early within the first 4 rounds, but Groves will get tired with all that feints, and all that head movement and DeGale will pick him apart and dominate the second half of the fight. DeGale by wide UD 117-111. As I’ve said I won’t be surprised if he does KO Groves though late.
The rematch, Pascal and Hopkins are doing it again. As I said back in December Hopkins knows what he is doing. His mind knows that he can easily beat Pascal, I just questioned whether or not his body could execute it. And it was able to, just came up a bit short with the two KDs he suffered early in the fight. I really don’t know if Pascal can do anything different. If he trys to fight for all 36 minutes he’ll get knocked out late and if he does what he did the last time he’ll just lose almost every round in a lopsided decision…but then again the question must be asked, can Hopkins’ body do what the mind is telling it to do? If his body can execute the plan this is a whitewash, Pascal doesn’t stand a chance. If it can’t were in for another close fight, a fight where Pascal might and probably will win. I’m banking that this will be like the first fight minus the two knockdowns. Hopkins wins the fight in the 116-112 range, but I say Hopkins wins by SD, due to the fact that the fight still is taking place in Quebec, and who knows….Hopkins could definitely get robbed, it wouldn’t be out of the ordinary, but anyway, I’ll take B-Hop to make history at age 46 and win another strap at 175 by SD.
Verdicts:
Joel Julio vs. Anges Adjaho- Joel Julio by UD
Jean Pascal vs. Bernard Hopkins II- Bernard Hopkins by SD
Chad Dawson vs. Adrian Diaconu- Chad Dawson by UD
Juan Palacios vs. Sammy Gutierrez- Sammy Gutierrez by SD
Denis Lebedev vs. Roy Jones Jr.- Denis Lebedev by KO
James DeGale vs. George Groves– James DeGale by UD
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